Jason -

Over the years, most of the elevator phones that I did required a termination in the elevator machine room. There were quite a few however that required a termination at the "mid-point box". This was a box that was piped to the middle of the run (For a 12 story elevator, the box was on the 6th floor). Sometimes it was out in the hall outside the elevators. Sometimes it was inside the shaft. Connecting to it meant a trip riding the top of the car with the elevator constructor who controlled the car with a hand held unit. A little scary, and more then a little dangerous. Where the termination ended up was determined by where the elevator "traveller" cable terminated. It was apparently cheaper to have a traveler that termed in the middle (made for a shorter cable).

In some of the situations where I had to terminate in the elevator machine room I was required to land my cables on a pair of screw terminals in their equipment. Because I had to run through the trough with the rest of the elevator (high voltage) wiring, I had to convert from Cat 3 to 16 AWG Thhn.

Plenum rated cable is ONLY required in Plenum (air return) situations. You probably won't need it if there's no drop ceiling. Non-Plenum is much cheaper too.

There are a variety of firestopping materials. 3M makes a whole line as I recall. There are bags, foam, sealants - all sorts of things, depending whether it's a large or small hole.

We always sleeve our cable running through a wall. A short piece of pipe with bushings on both ends works fine. We usually lock it in place with a piece of kindorf and a strap.

I don't have a current copy of the NEC, I 'll see if i can get hold of one. I did a load of work in Verizon COs and they were even stricter then the NEC.

Sam

"Where are we going and why are we in this hand basket?"